Expression and clinical significance of ALDH1A1 in breast invasive ductal carcinoma

Objective To study the expression of ALDH1A1 in invasive ductal carcinoma,and explore its clinical significance.Methods A total of 158 tumor specimens of radical operation for breast invasive ductal carcinoma were collected in the First Hospital of China Medical University from 2004 to 2008.The expression of ALDH1A1 protein in invasive ductal carcinoma tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry and its relationship with clinicopathological factors and prognosis were analyzed.Results ALDH1A1 was mainly expressed in cytoplasm and the expression rate was 56.3% in breast invasive ductal carcinoma tissues.The high expression of ALDH1A1 protein was related to Lymph node metastasis(P=0.009),but no relationship with age,menopause state,tumor size,hstological grade and TNM stage(P0.05).There was significant difference of the disease-free survival(DFS) or overall survival(OS) between breast cancer patients with / without ALDH1A1 expression(P =0.022 and P =0.011).Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that ALDH1A1 was the risk factors for prognosis of breast invasive ductal carcinoma,but not the independent prognostic factors.Conclusion ALDH1A1 protein played an important role in the genesis and development of breast invasive ductal carcinoma,and was closely related with Lymph node metastasis,which could be an important index in breast invasive ductal carcinoma prognosis.